Transition Tuesday
Hey, is it transition Tuesday time? I don't know if I've actually done one of these, but I happened to see an old picture of mine and think it would be interesting to match it up with one from a week ago.
First, me in the Fall of 2015, looking, I think, very much like the leftist, vocally car-free, grad student in human geography that I was. I was about 60 pounds lighter than I am now and biked a few thousand miles a year. I loved that pair of jeans so much! Jeans were the first clothes that I actually started caring about when I started buying women's jeans with fancy washes or embroidery at thrift stores. I was identifying as agender at the time, because I'd decided, rationally, that gender was oppressive and I wanted nothing to do with it.
Second, me a week ago Monday. I'd just done my nails and my eyebrows, and was feeling excited about going out for the night. If I had known, really known, in 2015 that I could be a woman... *sighs* I dunno. I know the prevailing wisdom is that you can't tell someone they're trans, but I can fantasize about someone at least telling me that it's OKAY to be trans. That *I* can be trans too, not just those other pretty trans girls I kind of longed to be like, but somehow felt like I wasn't allowed to be. The 2015 me would have been *thrilled*.
For that matter, I really believe that the 2000 me, if she knew that I would be living authentically as a woman, would have been so very, very happy.
Look at how I'm doing the same head tilt... that makes me happy, for some reason 🥰
Two images:
On the left is a woman with light skin, visible from the knees up, who doesn't realize she is a woman. She is on the thinner side, and has a mustache and goatee, and long brown hair that falls down each side of her chest, about 3/4 of the way to her waist. She is wearing a black T-shirt with a blue and black monochrome design featuring tree branches, birds, and a pair of headphones. Her jeans are a light blue with a wash leaving white marks that make them look like a certain kind of cloudy sky. Behind her is a bookshelf full of textbooks, books on urban studies, camera gear, CDs, and a bandanna emblazoned with EZLN, the logo of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
On the right is a woman with light skin visible from the chest up. She is looking at the camera and smiling. She is wearing a peach top with a wide horseshoe neckline and a small base-down triangular cutout at the center. Her long dark hair falls over one shoulder and she has one hand resting in front of her upper chest and neck, with fingers spread to show pink fingernails. She is wearing light pink cat eye glasses.
